Hello friends!

I'm rather excited to share this with you. On Sunday afternoon, Mark Jacinto was like "mom, let's make a house". I thought that was a good idea so I showed him the only box we had left at our place. It was a small box about the size of a shoebox. He cried, and said he wanted a big house! See, you get to a point were you come to understand your children at a deep level and know when it's a silly whine and when they mean business. This one was business; the kid has been thinking about this project for a while and he is set on achieving it. No, I don't do everything he asks of me, but on that particular day, I did mentioned we will do a "manualidad"(craft) together.

I wanted to help him fulfill his vision and took the kids to the box room at our building. Nothing there, all small boxes but Mark Jacinto kept insisting. Finally, somebody suggested that we look at another place in the building where we did find a big box. The box was so big it wouldn't enter through the door! So I deconstructed it and then taped it back together again.

This craft took some of the afternoon and evening because you know, at this age 4.5 and 19 months they do things on the slower side. I was so impressed with their attention span and concentration though. We took some brakes in between to have dinner and bake a cake. This whole thing was so magical for me and one of my favorite parts was when Mark Jacinto purposefully took a chair and asked me to turn on the oven lights. He stared at the cake and said: "I'm watching it bake, mom". I thought this was adorable!!

We are big music fans so enjoyed putting this together while listening to the wheels on the bus, itsy bitsy spider and so on.

Directions:

Pick your box and decide where you want your door and or window.
Once you figure that out, cut the pieces that do not belong to the desired layout.
Use sturdy tape to secure all the parts in place.
Grab white paper rolls or paper sheets and glue them to the wall.
Grab your paints and brushes( we used the Crayola washable kind)
Ask your kids what color do they want the walls to be, pour then in a container and paint, paint!
Optional: Grab a small box, cover them in white paper and tape it securely below the window.
Ask your kids to choose a color for the planter.
Paint the planter.
Pick thin colorful paper and fuzzy sticks to make the flowers.
Wrap the tip of the fuzzy stick to the wrinkled flower shaped paper and there you got your first flower.
Repeat as you wish.
For the curtains: Grab a piece of craft wire and measure the distance of the width of the window plus a couple of inches for wrapping.
With a sharp knife, make two holes 1 inch apart from each other on one side, and repeat the same on the other side.
Pass the wire through the two holes and secure with a knot.
Meanwhile take a piece of cloth, rag, old tshirt and sew or use E-6000 glue to make and secure a seam loop in which you can pass the wire.
You can have two curtains or one depending on your taste.
Cut a piece of yarn as an added element of decor to wrap around the curtains e voilá! You did it!

The materials to make this are limitless but I wanted to keep it simple and approachable for them. I love that this was all them, choosing and making it themselves. I laid the foundation and they built upon it.

The next day, I made the curtains and the kids were very excited to see them. This house has played the part of a grocery store at times, a nap place, a library and recently a puppet theater!! It was their idea and it came organically.

I love doing projects like this with them because it gives me a place to bond with my children, create and build relationships with them in a fun and "anything is possible" environment.

I'm very grateful for this opportunity.

Do you like to craft? If so, what types of crafts do you enjoy doing?

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Apr 14 Family Outing: The uphill shortcut to Fisherman's Warf